Red Stripe’s Inaugural Bar and Restaurant Seminar took place earlier this month, hosting key industry leaders as well as discussions focusing mainly on the different ways in which bar owners and restaurateurs can be successful in Jamaica’s current economic state and advancing technological landscape.
One topic of discussion for the day was Social media marketing and the use of digital advertising for bars and restaurants. This was led by Alex Morrissey, Director of Esirom who attended the panel along with Red Stripe’s On Trade Channel Development Manager Shanique Mongal, Dianne Ashton-Smith, Head of Corporate Affairs at Red Stripe and host of the day, Stacy-Ann Smith, Red Stripe’s brand and corporate PR Manager.
His presentation was centered around how bars and restaurants can have
a bigger and more effective presence in the digital world, including what tools they can use and the best ways to capitalize on their social media presence.
To close, here are a few insights from his presentation.
- Common Social Media Mistakes for Beginners
- Over posting – quantity over quality should be key
- Slow response times
- Using a platform incorrectly
- Not following best practices of the platform, including guidelines given by each platform
- Weak passwords – they increase the chances of hacking
- Being focused only on followers and not enough on awareness, reach and engagements.
- Key Tips!
- 3 out 4 Customers use social media comments and images to decide where to eat
- A disclaimer used on the actual image or video contents, is use to have for br and Restaurants
- Online reviews influence 89% (usually under the age of 35) of restaurant choices made by GENX and Millennials
- The data is collected:
- Using your data plan
- tagging/location
- searching patterns
- And engagement of that location on social
- The data is collected:
- Use social media as a search engine!
- Think about the digital CAJ – Customer Acquisition Journey
- How do they find you
- What are they doing to consider you
- How do you post or when was your last post?
- International standards – 4 posts per month once you also have boosted content/ads running
- Do you have story highlights? Do your story highlights have your key information?
- How does your content look? Is your food and drinks appealing?
- How do you post or when was your last post?
- Will they try you?
- P.s. When they do:
- Keep the journey going: remind them visibly at your location about your social media handles and specify your hashtag that they can use
- Incentivise them to leave a review (it helps!)
- P.s. When they do:
- Will they return to you
- Study your insights – key to this is turning you account into a professional/business account
- FB has noted that they have 1.6 million Jamaicans (active users)
- Use all the features that the platforms offers – you will rank higher in your algorithm
- Fill out your profile entirely
- Provide all your necessary information, for both new and existing customers
- Add the type of cuisine / speciality that you offer
- Create a website! They still work! They’re the only digital source where you have full control!
- Think about the digital CAJ – Customer Acquisition Journey
